Rights & Responsibilities

You Have the Right to:

• Be treated in a dignified and respectful manner and to receive reasonable responses to reasonable requests for service
• Effective communication that provides information in a manner you understand, in your preferred language with provisions of interpreting or translation services at no cost, and in a manner that meets your needs in the event of vision, speech, hearing or cognitive impairments; information should be provided in easy to understand terms that will allow you to formulate informed consent
• Respect for your cultural and personal values, beliefs and preferences
• Personal privacy, privacy of your health information and to receive a notice of the hospital’s privacy practices
• Pain management and information on non-opioid alternatives for the treatment of pain
• Accommodation for your religious and other spiritual services
• Access, request amendment to and obtain information on disclosures of your health information in accordance with law and regulation within a reasonable time frame
• To have a family member, friend or other support individual to be present with you during the course of your stay, unless that person’s presence infringes on others’ rights, safety or is medically contraindicated
• Care or services provided without discrimination based on age, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, creed, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression
• Participate in decisions about your care, including developing your treatment plan, discharge planning and having your family and personal physician promptly notified of your admission 
• Have the hospital provide you or your surrogate decision-maker with the information about the outcomes of care, treatment and services that you need in order to participate in current and future healthcare decisions
• Select providers of goods and services to be received after discharge
• Refuse care, treatment or services in accordance with law and regulation and to leave the facility against advice of the physician
• Have a surrogate decision-maker participate in care, treatment and services decisions when you are unable to make your own decisions 
• Receive information about the outcomes of your care, treatment and services, including unanticipated outcomes
• Give or withhold informed consent when making decisions about your care, treatment and services 
• Receive information about benefits, risks, side effects to proposed care, treatment and services; the likelihood of achieving your goals and any potential problems that might occur during recuperation from proposed care, treatment and service and any reasonable alternatives to the care, treatment and services proposed
• Give or withhold informed consent to produce or use recordings, filming or obtaining images of you for any purpose other than your care 
• Participate in or refuse to participate in research, investigation or clinical trials without jeopardizing your access to care and services unrelated to the research
• Know the names of the practitioner who has primary responsibility for your care, treatment or services and the names of other practitioners providing your care
• Request the treating practitioner consult with your primary care or specialty physician when developing a plan of care
• Formulate advance directives concerning care to be received at end-of-life and to have those advance directives honored to the extent of the facility's ability to do so in accordance with law and regulation; you also have the right to review or revise any advance directives
• Be free from neglect; exploitation; and verbal, mental, physical and sexual abuse
• An environment that is safe, preserves dignity and contributes to a positive self-image
• Be free from any forms of restraint or involuntary seclusion used as a means of convenience, discipline, coercion or retaliation; and to have the least restrictive method of restraint or seclusion used only when necessary to ensure patient safety
• Access protective and advocacy services and to receive a list of such groups upon your request
• Receive the visitors whom you designate, including but not limited to a spouse, a domestic partner (including same sex domestic partner), another family member, or a friend. You may deny or withdraw your consent to receive any visitor at any time. To the extent this facility places limitations or restrictions on visitation; you have the right to set any preference of order or priority for your visitors to satisfy those limitations or restrictions
• Examine and receive an explanation of the bill for services, regardless of the source of payment

You Have the Responsibility to:

• Provide accurate and complete information concerning your present medical condition, past illnesses or hospitalization and any other matters concerning your health
• Tell your caregivers if you do not completely understand your plan of care
• Request from your treating hospital physician the need to consult with your primary care physician or specialist
• Follow the caregivers’ instructions
• Follow all medical center policies and procedures while being considerate of the rights of other patients, medical center employees and medical center properties

Gender Identity

If your gender identity is different from the sex you were assigned at birth, please let the registrar know each time you register at this facility. We respect your privacy and want you to be comfortable during interactions with our staff. (Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act).

You Also Have the Right to:

Lodge a concern with the state, whether you have used the hospital’s grievance process or not. If you have concerns regarding the quality of your care, coverage decisions or want to appeal a premature discharge, contact the State Quality Improvement Organization (QIO).

• Quality Improvement Organization, KEPRO, 5201 W. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 900, Tampa, FL 33609, Toll-Free Phone: 888-317-0751, Local Phone: 813-280-8256, TTY: 711

For Medicare complaints, contact:

• Agency for Healthcare Administration, 2727 Mahan Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32308, 888-419-3456

Report a Patient Safety Event or Concern

Submit a Concern/Event to The Joint Commission Online (Preferred Method)

Visit www.jointcommission.org/report_a_complaint.aspx, then click “Submit a new patient safety event or concern” or “Submit an update or ask a question about your incident.”

Submit a Concern/Event to The Joint Commission by Mail

Office of Quality and Patient Safety, The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

What Happens to Your Incident?

• We check for other patient safety events about the organization.
• We may write to the organization about your concern.
• Sometimes, we visit the organization to see if there is a problem in meeting the requirements that deal with your concern.
• We will not share your name with the organization unless you say it is okay.